Every now and then a person enters your life and you think, “I could write a column about this person every week and never run out of material.” Or at least that’s what I think. Such a person for me was Pablo, known in “Snide Remarks” as Raoul, my housemate from Christmas 2003 until June 2004.
I direct your attention to the two columns I wrote about him, “Doing Tiempo” and “Señor Clean,” which appeared seven weeks apart in spring 2004. (I referred to him again at the end of “U-Haul Come Back Now, Ya Hear?,” a few weeks later.) Reading these columns again reminds me of more stories I could tell about him, like how he was obsessed with Princess Diana and would constantly re-watch a video tape of some TV special about her, or how one time he was late with his rent because he had accidentally washed his paycheck.
Good ol’ Pablo. I have no idea what became of him. He’s the kind of person who, despite being dim-witted and disaster-prone, will probably never actually be killed or even injured. He’s probably a millionaire now.
